As grammar is being discussed, this is the new Yr 6 SPAG test

[katmanwho]

AIBU to use Google to answer half of them!!

Good luck

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439299/Sample_ks2_EnglishGPS_paper1_questions.pdf

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We're not talking about 5 year olds though or how native learners learn to speak through immersion. That's a totally different skill.

Non-natives can learn through immersion too.

But not on three lessons a week

It's all well and good saying you think all this stuff is unnecessary, but to say this is high level linguistics just makes people sound ignorant. It really is not, and children in other countries learn all this at a young age as well.

I struggle with the unnecessary label as well - who gets to decide what is necessary learning and what isn't? People mourn the loss of time for creative writing - why is creative writing more important? In my whole adult life I have never done any creative writing, so was doing it at school pointless and unnecessary?

I teach MFL and on the whole students don't mind learning grammar, on the contrary - they love how it all makes sense and fits together.

Marniasmum - you are wrong. No one can learn to speak (let alone write) proper adult French or German without studying grammar.

Oh that is so not true!!

There is certainly no reason whatsoever why learning grammar prevents creative writing. Indeed, most schools will positively encourage it not least to ensure that children know how to apply grammar rules in that context.

It's is ignorant to blindly accept and celebrate every single new government idea for How To Make School Harder.

Generally I absolutely despise everything this government has done in relation to education, and if I was any good at darts would have Michael Gove's face pinned to a dart board to vent some of my frustration. I can rant for England about what they've done with academies and free schools and the insanity of the whole school inspection regime, and their failure to do anything effective about SEN provision. But I do think that the spag initiative is an exception to that rule and is something that ultimately has the potential to empower children and young people. It'll be interesting to see how this works out in terms of young people coming into the workplace in a few years' time.